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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

My dear readers, thanks so much to those of you who participated, commented and voted in the Pin-Up Lingerie Competition! I loved reading your votes and seeing your support for your fellow needle wielders!
Reading the comments and counting the votes showed that we all have our various preferences in lingerie fabrics, colors, and moods but of course, there must be winners and there were some very clear front-runners in this competition.

To those of you who participated, your hard work and contributions have really inspired me. You all sewed such beautiful pieces and I know I speak for both Sarah and myself when I say, thank you for putting your creations out there! I know it's not easy!

Sarah and I will contact you ladies via Craftsy to give you your prizes! I would also love to take this opportunity to thank Sarah of Ohhh Lulu for helping me sponsor the giveaway. To those of you who haven't treated yourself to her amazing hand-made lingerie yet, you're really missing something special!

And also, to everyone who entered, you did a great job and I hope that you have enjoyed sewing your lingerie as much as I have.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

My lovely readers, imagine my delight when I woke up the other day,
took a peak at A Few Threads Loose, and saw that I had reached 500
followers through Google! I know that there are more of you through
Bloglovin', bookmarks, and other readers but ever since the blog started
to have a regular following, I've always dreamed about hitting that 500
mark!

Welcome to our new followers, (I hope you find the blog
useful!) and my warmest thanks to my current readers, especially to
those of you who have stuck with me for so long. You all make my life so
much richer with your comments, moral support, and friendship.

To thank you all, I would love to do what I love doing the most on this blog: Have a Giveaway!

It's good timing too, because I have just finished my newest pattern for Mrs. Depew Vintage, and one lucky reader will win a copy!

I have recently sewn what feels like a hundred of these little knickers and have really had a blast making different ones in all sorts of styles.

The pattern only takes a couple of hours to sew and is suitable for beginners. It also includes fully illustrated instructions.

The
sky is the limit with a simple pattern like this. You can trim the
knickers with ribbon, lace, bows or buttons to suit your own style. I've been making mine with a great silk twill from Denver Fabrics and the results are heaven.

Above is the knickers in Kelly green silk twill with silk rose ribbon trim. The matching bra is from a pattern that I'm currently working on as well. It should be out soon!

The
knickers pattern includes sizes X-Small through X-Large to fit a wide range of
figures.

To enter to win, leave a comment telling me what you would use to make the knickers from. Do you have a favorite fabric? Would you embellish with lace, ribbons etc?

For an added entry, you can do any of the following. Just leave me a comment to let me know which you've done:

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Lovely readers! The much-anticipated day has arrived! Your entries have been an absolute pleasure to see and I can't wait to share them with you.
Once again, there will be one winner and prize for each category (bra, corset, and panties) and contestants are allowed to win more than one category.

All votes (yours, your friends'; anyone can vote once for each category!) must all be in comment form on this blog post so that Sarah and I can keep track of them.
Let's get started, shall we? And dare I say it, (I'm afraid I must) "May the odds be ever in your favor!"

Here are the very talented contestants according to their categories. They will have little introduction. Normally I would gush but I'm supposed to be impartial (rules, boo!). To see more pictures of their entry, just click on the username under the picture. You can just vote for them by their numbers if you like!
(Please note, the numbering is random, and just there for voting convenience.)

Whew! And that's it! If I missed your entry, please let me know and I'll add it in. Everyone can vote once for each 3 categories. Invite your friends and family to vote for you, share on Facebook, Twitter and your blog, and good luck!

Voting will end on February 25th and we'll announce the winners on February 26th!

I wanted to make a version that was more garter belt than corset. This was easily done by trimming each pattern piece at the narrowest point of the waist and then sewing as normal, sans any boning.

The fabric is a lightweight cotton print that I picked up in a sale bin at "The Mess" (my local, very disorganized fabric shop). For the back closure, I used some hook and eye tape, tea dyed so that it wasn't such a bright white.

Yeah, I know, word from the wise, never sew bias binding when your hands are shaking form a caffeine high. It never ends well.

I used flat felled seams like I did on my original corset for extra strength.

Overall, the whole piece is quite light weight and breathable... though I was rather tempted to make one out of flannel instead, considering I live in freezing wet Norway (She said, putting particular emphasis on the freezing as if it were a curse word).

As Sarah intimated in her most recent blog post, sewing beautiful, feminine spring lingerie was like saying a big, "Go away, winter!" and that's how this piece feels. I can just see myself wearing this under a sweet, flowing pastel sundress. And, believe it or not, as I write this, the snow that was falling outside turned turned to a cold wet rain instead! It's still miserable, but considerably less so. Sweet Dita Von Teese! The lingerie Goddess has heard my prayer!

Don't forget, you need to post your submissions to the contest on Craftsy.com by Monday the 18th!

Friday, February 8, 2013

Hello lovely readers. This is just a quick announcement that due to popular demand, I have decided to extend the deadline for entries to the lingerie sewing competition!

I received comments and emails from several of you asking for just a bit more time. As someone who has done some sewing on demand for customers and other competitions, I get the stress of trying to finish when everything in your life is conspiring against your personal sewing time. So, instead of announcing the official competitors today, I have decided to give you a little more time! Since the weekend is when most of us have time to sew for ourselves, I'll give you two of them. The new deadline for submissions is Monday, February 18th. We'll then post the official competitors on Tuesday, the 19th and voting will last until we announce the winner on Tuesday the 26th.
(For how to post your entry to Craftsy.com, check out this post.)

I hope that gives you all enough time and may the sewing gods keep your schedules free of any broken machines, disasters and mean bosses making you work overtime!

In the meantime, here is a really beautiful piece of lingerie to inspire you this weekend.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Hello lovely readers, today for you I have a bit of this and a bit of that, all hopefully of some interest to you.
Firstly, a quick reminder that entries for the Lingerie Sewing Competition sponsored by Ohhh Lulu and myself will need to be submitted to Craftsy by Friday, February 8th. (If you're desperate for more sewing time before the deadline, let me know and we might consider moving the deadline back a bit).

A few of you have already added your submissions and let me just say, they are all so beautiful and voting is going to be close!

In other news, the clever and talented writers behind two really amazing vintage blogs, Brittany of Va-Voom Vintage and Bunny of Bunny's Victory have released the first issue of their new magazine, "Hey Doll!" This free digital magazine is an absolute treasure trove of vintage goodies, outfits, tutorials, tips and everything else that you could want!

Photo courtesy of Hey Doll! Magazine.

You can read it online using a computer or any mobile device. I pulled it up on my iPad and read it over my morning coffee. I can't recommend this magazine enough!